Bhubaneswar: Following the death of male giraffe Joy, who died of theileriosis on February 29 five days after it was brought from the Alipore zoo, authorities of the Nandankanan zoo on Thursday wrote a letter to the Alipore zoo authorities requesting them to send another male giraffe.
Besides, the Nandankanan authorities have also apprised the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) of the circumstances leading to the death of the giraffe.
Expressing sadness over the death of the male giraffe, director of Alipore zoo, Ashish Samant had said on Wednesday he had not received the detailed report from his Nandankanan counterparts on the death of the male giraffe.
Talking to OTV over phone, he had said the health condition of the giraffe was all right during its stay at the Alipore zoo. Doctors of the Alipore and Nandankanan zoos had conducted a health check-up on the giraffe before it was shifted to Nandankanan and found no infection in its body.
Stating that there are six healthy giraffes in the Alipore zoo, he had said he would consider sending another giraffe if the Nandankanan authorities make a request in this regard.
A day after the death of ‘Joy’, the State government had constituted a three-member committee to investigate the cause of the death. The committee, headed by former PCCF Saroj Patnaik, has been asked to submit its report within a week.
Joy was brought to Nandankanan from the Alipore zoo in Kolkata on February 24 under an animal exchange programme for mating with the lone female giraffe in the city zoo ‘Khusi’. The State zoo had swapped four of its tigers to get the long-necked animal.
Five-year old ‘Joy’, which took birth at the Alipore zoo, was brought here under the supervision of an eight-member expert team headed by Assistant director of Nandankanan Dr Kamal Lochan Purohit.